The street rod industry has grown allowing many popular street rods to be built based on classic car or truck designs. In many cases, the basic design of a car serves as the foundation for a xe2x80x9cstreet rodxe2x80x9d. In the case of a street rod, various departures are usually made from the design of the original vehicle, such as using higher performance engine or different transmission, parts of which may be left exposed rather than being covered, using a modem suspension and tires, etc. Often, it is the goal in the design of a street rod to increase performance characteristics through the use of after-market parts that were never available at the time of the classic car or truck design. An industry has developed for supplying such after-market parts for these street rods.
In many cases, the after-market parts are reproductions of the corresponding original equipment parts, though modern materials, such as fiberglass, are often used in their construction. Other after-market parts, which may not be reproductions of original parts, provide modern technologies and capabilities not available at the time of the design of the original classic car or truck. These after-market parts may not be reproductions of original parts, but rather, are intended to provide certain conveniences, performance enhancements, and/or safety enhancements that the original parts did not provide. Examples of such after-market parts are found in U.S. Pat. No. 5,494,011 (Haller) entitled High-Rise Intake Manifold For Performance Engines And Method For Manufacturing Same; U.S. Pat. No. 5,108,129 (Olsen) entitled Inner Fender Liner; and, U.S. Pat. No. 5,022,679 (Pazik) entitled Vehicle Gas Tank.
In many instances, motor vehicles and water craft are not designed to provide additional space to accommodate the installation of after-market parts. To the contrary, available space for installation of such parts within motor vehicles and water craft is usually scarce and often is closely confined. Additionally, access to available space within such vehicles may be difficult making installation of such parts difficult, time consuming and/or expensive. Thus, installers of after-market parts often must be creative in identifying suitable locations for installation of these parts. For example, after-market parts are frequently installed in the vehicle""s trunk, under passenger seats, on the ceiling of the passenger compartment, etc. To address this challenge, designers of after-market parts endeavor to design these parts in ways that enables their installation in a number of alternative locations within a vehicle such as a street rod in the event that installation within a first desired location is not possible. By designing after-market parts with this flexibility, their attractiveness to after-market installers increases, thus increasing sales. An after-market installer will be more likely to purchase an after-market part if that part can be installed in any one of a number of alternative locations within the motor vehicle rather than in just one location.
The commonly owned ""476 patent application entitled xe2x80x9cA Shifting Apparatus For An Automatic Transmission Including A Vehicle Security Systemxe2x80x9d discloses a shifting apparatus that includes a key pad module, an actuator module and a controller. The key pad module is adapted to be positioned on the dash board of the passenger compartment of the motor vehicle for convenient access by the driver. The actuator module is arranged for rotating the transmission""s shift position select shaft which, in turn, operates internal devices within the transmission to position the transmission in a plurality of transmission positions such as park, neutral, drive, reverse, etc. Under the ""476 application the actuator module is arranged for affixation directly to the transmission housing in proximity to the transmission""s shift position select shaft. There are no other locations disclosed in this application for mounting the actuator module. Since this portion of the transmission housing is often closely surrounded by other internal components of the motor vehicle, it is within a very confined space that is difficult and often expensive to access. Furthermore, in order to remove the actuator module mounted of the ""476 application from the automatic transmission housing, many other components in close proximity to the installation of the actuator module that block access must first be disconnected and removed before disconnecting and removing the actuator module.
Thus, it would be beneficial to provide a transmission shifting apparatus that includes an actuator module that provides flexibility in that can be mounted in places in a motor vehicle (and vehicles such as water craft) where available space is found. In other words, it would be beneficial to provide a transmission shifting apparatus that does not need to be mounted directly to the automatic transmission housing where space is severely limited and access is difficult. It would also be beneficial to provide such a transmission shifting apparatus that could be installed as part of the manufacture of a new motor vehicle or could be installed as an after-market part.
These and other objects of this invention are achieved by providing an automatic shift apparatus that is adapted for use with an automatic transmission that is situated within a closely confined area within a vehicle. The transmission is of the type that includes an externally mounted shift position select lever that selectively shifts the transmission from a present transmission shift position to one of a plurality of desired transmission shift positions. The shifting apparatus includes an operator input means adapted to be mounted in the passenger compartment of the vehicle. The operator input means is arranged to respond to actuation by the vehicle operator and generates an operator signal representative of a desired transmission shift position. A motor drive assembly is adapted to be mounted within the vehicle at a location remote from the closely confined area in which the transmission is located. The motor drive assembly is operatively connected to a flexible cable. The flexible cable extends from the remote location and engages the shift position select lever to impart rotational movement thereon. A processor means determines the present transmission shift position and operates in response to receipt of the operator signal to energize the motor drive assembly to induce rotational movement of the shift position select lever to a position corresponding to the desired transmission shift position.
In a variation of the first exemplary embodiment, the flexible cable is sleeved, the flexible cable being moveable within the sleeve.
In another variation of the exemplary embodiment, the motor drive assembly comprises a substantially rigid mounting plate, a motor driven actuator assembly including an output shaft, and means for mounting the motor driven actuator assembly to the mounting plate. The output shaft is operatively connected to a translational member, the driven translational member being operatively connected to the flexible cable.
In another variation of the exemplary embodiment, the axis of the output shaft is substantially parallel to the axis of the driven translational shaft.
In another variation of the exemplary embodiment, the motor driven actuator assembly includes a housing through which the output shaft extends.
In another variation of the exemplary embodiment, the sleeve is affixed to the transmission housing.
In another variation of the exemplary embodiment, the sleeve is affixed to said mounting plate.